8 January – Puerto Lopez to Quito via Manta
The travel day from Puerto Lopez was an 8 hour day of travel mostly waiting.
Johnny and his moto-taxi found me waiting for Javier at Hotel Pacific. I was checking my email one last time on the hotels wifi. Johnny found himself on Facebook so now I have two South American Facebook friends. He gave me a ride to the bus station and helped direct me to the woman at the desk selling tickets. Javier called Johnny to talk to me to apologize for not showing up to escort me to the station. Id asked him if he would help me figure out which bus and where to buy the ticket but he didnt show up. About five minutes after Id found my seat on the bus, he got on to find me to say goodbye. The day before he kept asking me Tomorrow your last day here? and after I answered yes, without missing a beat he ask When you come back?
The bus ride was smooth and easy and faster than the one that got me there. Arriving at 2 PM I had several hours to kill until my 6:35 PM flight. Being Sunday, there were fewer businesses open the food options were limited and Im staying away from street vendor food so I went to the only place open a chicken and hamburger joint. I asked the guy who tried to help me if he spoke English. Although he didnt, he got the one guy in the place who did. He brought me a piece of chicken, fries and a Sprite that came to a grand total of $2.50. I stayed a while, read and listened to the soccer game blaring on the tv. It was hot in that place so I got a taxi to the airport, which was virtually deserted by air conditioned. I sat in the café, reading the Frommers on Moms Kindle and did a little trip planning.
We boarded the plane at sunset and landed in Quito after dark. The city is 22 miles long, three miles wide and, at 9,000+ feet, its a trip to land at the airport thats smack dab in the city. I saw the full moon upon our descent into the city airport.
Hipatia, my hostess, was standing in the crowd with a sign that said Bienvinedos Pam Lindberg. We took an unmarked taxi to her home where I met her daughters and two other American women who are staying with her and studying Spanish at Vida Verde.